Entrepreneur billionaire Elon Musk, widely considered the world's richest man, offered to fight Russian President Vladimir Putin with the winner taking Ukraine as a prize.
“I hereby challenge Владимир Путин to single combat. Stakes are Україна," tweeted Musk, mentioning Putin's name in its original Russian.
Musk, who has nearly 78 million Twitter followers, repeated his offer of a "winner-take-all" combat event by addressing Putin, known for his judo skills (again in Russian): "Are you up for it?"
In a December interview with The Wall Street Journal, Musk said he "...crack[s] a lot of jokes." "They don’t all land, but I am aspirationally funny," quipped the Tesla founder.
On February 26, Musk announced his company SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband service had been activated in Ukraine after Russian troops tried cutting internet access to the beleaguered country.
"Starlink service is now active in Ukraine," Musk tweeted, adding "more terminals en route."
The tweet came 10 hours after Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov urged Musk to provide Starlink services to Ukraine in the wake of the country being invaded by Russia.
"While you try to colonize Mars -- Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space -- Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations," Fedorov tweeted, calling on Musk "to address sane Russians to stand" against their government's invasion.